Much has been said and written about the situation today in Afghanistan. Since the ruling Taliban movement conquered the capital in 1996, women have been subjected to what the West regards as draconian measures. Radio Netherlands producer Eric Beauchemin spoke to four Afghan women who live as refugees in Pakistan. They're among the 1.5 million Afghans who have fled the war and poverty in their own country and taken refuge there. These women all lived under Taliban rule, but even before women's rights were being curtailed.

Program Credits

My Only Wish was produced by Eric Beauchemin of Radio
Netherlands. It aired as part of
the international documentary exchange
series, Crossing Boundaries. The voice-overs were read by
Iris Walstra and Ginder da Silva.

Books:Women of the Afghan Warby Deborah Ellis, 2000
This book is an account of the Afghan War and its tragic aftermath as told by the women who were caught up in it and became its innocent victims

Afghanistan's Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Talibanby Larry P. Goodson, 2001
Going beyond the stereotypes of the black-turbaned Taliban fundamentalists, Larry Goodson explains in this concise analysis of the Afghan war what has really been happening in Afghanistan in the last 20 years, and why the future of Afghanistan matters